Bar Soap Recycling Device

ABSTRACT

A bar soap recycling device comprises a container with an opening, a lid, a screen mesh with a handle, and a faucet. Used bar soaps and water are added to the container to form a soap solution. The screen mesh is used to smash the bar soaps into small pieces for a fast dissolving. The soap solution is dispensed through the faucet for hand wash or other cleaning uses.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a recycling device that can dissolveused bath soaps and dispense the resulting soap solution for cleaninguses. The recycling device comprises a container for holding the soapand the soap solution, a tool for smashing used bar soaps, and a faucetfor dispensing the soap solution.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

People use bar soap in their daily life for hand washing, showering, orother cleaning uses. A bar soap is depleted into a small or tiny pieceafter being continuously used. Bar soap becomes slippery when it is wet.When it turns into a piece that is too small to be handled by hands,people tend to stop using it and put it away. In most cases, it isdiscarded. It is wasteful for throwing away this small piece of bar soapwhen its cleaning properties remain largely unchanged. This wastefulpractice becomes significant when adding together the amount of alldisposed bar soaps in millions of households for past many years. Theseused bar soaps should be saved for use if there is a convenient way fora user to handle it.

In fact, efforts have been made to collect soap drippings and pieces forreuse. In the U.S. Pat. No. 8,136,699, Giovanni Bianchini developed arecycler for recycling bar soap by passing the drippings and pieces ofbar soaps in the dish into to a water reservoir to form a reusablecleaning solution. Liquid soap can be also added to the reservoir toconstitute a soap mixture. Although leftover pieces of bar soap may bemanually dropped into the soap container, the design of this inventionmainly focuses on how to simultaneously capture the drippings or sliverssplit from bar soaps when they are used. This device may reserve almostthe whole piece of bar soap for use in its life cycle. However, it doesnot help the soap solution to quickly reach a concentration that issufficient for a cleaning use without adding additional soap to thesolution. In addition, the device lacks of a means of breaking used barsoaps down to small pieces and quickly dissolving them into thesolution.

Therefore, it is very much needed in the art to have a device that notonly recycles used bar soaps for cleaning uses but also facilitatesthese soaps to dissolve into water and form a soap solution. Theseissues are addressed and resolved in the current invention.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The current invention relates to a device that recycles used bar soapsfor cleaning uses. The device comprises a container with an opening onthe top, a lid, a screen mesh with a handle, and a faucet. The containerholds used bar soaps and soap solution. The screen mesh is used as asmashing tool to break used bar soaps down to small pieces. The soapsolution is dispensed through the faucet. In some embodiments of theinvention, the device comprises a cubic container and a rectangularscreen mesh. In some other embodiments of the invention, the containeris cylinder-shaped with a round screen mesh. In some particularembodiments, the lid is a part separated from the handle of the screenmesh. In other particular embodiments, the lid is an integral part ofthe handle. In some more particular embodiments of the invention, thelid has a hole and a size bigger than the container's opening.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a bar soap recycling device with a cubic container.

FIG. 2 depicts a bar soap recycling device with a cylindrical container.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention pertains to a recycling device for used bar soaps.The device comprises a container with an opening, a lid, a screen meshwith a handle, and a faucet. Bar soaps are dropped into the containerwith water. They start to dissolve into water and form a soap solution.If the size of a bar soap is too big or a fast dissolving is desired,the screen mesh can be used to smash the bar soap or breaking it down tosmaller pieces. When the faucet is opened, the soap solution startsflowing out from the container for cleaning use.

One preferred embodiment of the bar soap recycling device is shown inFIG. 1. The soap solution and used bar soaps added to the system canalso be seen in the figure. The device comprises a cubic container 1with an opening 2′, a lid 2 on the top of the container 1, a screen mesh3, and a faucet 7 installed at a lower position of the container 1.

The container 1 is transparent in this embodiment so that the level ofthe soap solution 8 or any undissolved bar soap 9 can be seen from theoutside of the container. The container is made of plastic materialssuch as polyethylene polymer in order to be transparent. In otherembodiments, the container 1 may also be made of other materials such asopaque plastics or metal. Although the container 1 is cube-shaped inFIG. 1, other shapes such as cylinder can also be used. The containermay also be substantially cube-shaped or cylinder-shape. “Substantiallycube-shaped” means that the cubic container's cross section is in eithersquare or rectangular shape with right or curved angles. “Substantiallycylinder-shaped” means the cylindrical container's cross section has acurved shape.

The container 1 is completely open on its top so that water and used barsoaps can be added into it through the opening 2′. A lid 2 with acircular hole 6 are shown in FIG. 1. The size of the lid 2 is biggerthan the container's opening 2′ in order for it to stay on the top ofcontainer 1 without falling into the soap solution. The lid 2 can bemade of plastics or metal materials. The circular hole 6 is created forallowing a user to smash the used bar soap 9 or mix the soap solution 8with the screen mesh 3 and the handle 4 without opening the lid. Thehole can be made in other shapes such as square as long as its size isbig enough for the screen mesh handle 4 to be moved through the holefreely. In other embodiments, the lid does not have a hole. In order touse the screen mesh the lid must be removed from the top of thecontainer.

In FIG. 1, the screen mesh 3 has the same rectangular shape as the crosssection of the container 1. Shapes like circle or oval may be used inother embodiments. In this preferred embodiment the size of the screenmesh 3 is nearly the same as the cross section area of the container 1,but the internal walls of the container 1 does not cause obstructionwhen the screen mesh 3 is manually moved up and down to smash the usedbar soap 9. In other embodiments, the size of the screen mesh may besmaller than the one shown in FIG. 1. However, it may not be smallerthan one-fourth of the cross section area of the container. The screenmesh 3 is formed by grids that are made of plastic or metal materials.Grids are in parallelogram shape with each side no longer than one inch.As shown in FIG. 1, the screen mesh 3 is affixed to the screen meshhandle 4 by two rods 5. Two sides of the screen mesh 3 and one end ofthe handle 4 are connected together by these two rods 5. The affixationcan be done either by screwing or welding. These rods 5 are made ofplastics, stainless steel or metal with anti-corrosion coating. The sizeand shape of these rods may vary depending on the size of the device. Inother embodiments, more than two rods may be used to connect togetherthe screen mesh and the handle.

The screen mesh handle 4 is a straight piece of shaft. It is preferredto be in a circular shape. It is made of metal, wood, plastics, or othersynthetic polymers. As shown in FIG. 1, the combination of the screenmesh 3, the screen mesh handle 4, and the rods 5 forms a smashing toola′. A user may smash a bar soap by holding the handle 4 to press thescreen mesh 3 on the soap continuously or strike it for multiple times.The handle 4 needs to be long enough so that the user can grasp it byhands from the outside of the container 1 when the screen mesh 3 reachesto the bottom of the container 1. When it is not in use, the smashingtool a′ may stay in the container for it can be taken out and putelsewhere.

The faucet 7 is installed at the lower position of the container 1. Inother embodiments, it can also be installed at the bottom of thecontainer 1. The faucet 7 in this embodiment is mainly made of plastics.The faucet 7 can be one of those commonly used water dispenser faucetsavailable in the market such as a spring-loaded valve which allowsliquid to flow out of the container when a lever connected to the valveis pressed. Other faucets such as those having a valve with a flowingchannel that can be opened or shut down by turning the lever may also beused.

Another preferred embodiment of the bar soap recycling device is shownin FIG. 2. This recycling device comprises a cylindrical container 10, ascreen mesh 13, and a water dispenser faucet 14. The screen mesh 13 hasa round shape and a size smaller than the cross section area of thecylindrical container 10. The screen mesh may be in other shapes and hasa same size as the cross section area of the container. The screen mesh13 is affixed directly to the screen mesh handle 11 by screwing. A roundplate 12 is glued to the handle 11 and becomes an integral part of thehandle. The plate can also be attached to the handle by screwing inother embodiments. The round plate 12 is used as a lid with a size thatis nearly as big as the opening 12′ of the container 10 so that it isable to cover the opening, but remains to move up and down withoutobstruction. The handle 11, the plate 12, and the screen mesh 13 form asmashing tool b′ for breaking the bar soap 16 down to small pieces. Inother embodiments, the plate may be in other shapes such as square oroval to match the opening shape of the container. The plate may have asize bigger than the container's opening. In such case, the handle needsto be long enough so that the screen mesh is able to touch the bottom ofthe container when the plate stays on top of the container. The soapsolution 15 flows out from the container 10 for cleaning uses when thefaucet 14 is opened.

While this device is invented mainly for the purpose of recycling usedbar soaps, it can also be used for liquid soap or combination of bothtypes of soaps. Except the size and its limit specifically describedabove, the size of a bar soap recycling device and the size ratios amongits parts may vary in other embodiments. It is to be understood that theabove description and drawings are only used to illustrate two of themost preferred embodiments of the current invention. They are notintended to limit the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A bar soap recycling device comprising: acontainer for holding soap and soap solution with an opening at its top;a lid for covering the container's opening; a screen mesh with a handle;and a faucet installed at a lower position of the container.
 2. A barsoap recycling device as described in claim 1 wherein the container istransparent.
 3. A bar soap recycling device as described in claim 1wherein the container is substantially cube-shaped.
 4. A bar soaprecycling device as described in claim 3 wherein the screen mesh has arectangular shape.
 5. A bar soap recycling device as described in claim1 wherein the container is substantially cylinder-shaped.
 6. A bar soaprecycling device as described in claim 1 wherein the lid has a circularhole with a size that allows the handle of the screen mesh to passthrough the hole.
 7. A bar soap recycling device as described in claim 1wherein the screen mesh is affixed directly to the handle.
 8. A bar soaprecycling device as described in claim 1 wherein the screen mesh isaffixed to the handle through at least two rods.
 9. A bar soap recyclingdevice comprising: a container for holding soap and soap solution withan opening at its top; a screen mesh attached to a handle with a platefor covering the container's opening; and a faucet installed at a lowerposition of the container.
 10. A bar soap recycling device as describedin claim 9 wherein the container is transparent.
 11. A bar soaprecycling device as described in claim 9 wherein the container issubstantially cube-shaped.
 12. A bar soap recycling device as describedin claim 9 wherein the container is substantially cylinder-shaped.
 13. Abar soap recycling device as described in claim 12 wherein the screenmesh has a round shape and a size smaller than the cross section area ofthe container.
 14. A bar soap recycling device as described in claim 9wherein the screen mesh is affixed directly to the handle.
 15. A barsoap recycling device as described in claim 9 wherein the screen mesh isaffixed to the handle through at least two rods.